http://mmajunkie.comRIO DE JANEIRO – With 10 years worth of MMA experience under his belt, it would be understandable if Brazilian welterweight Carlo Prater was a little bitter it took him 40 fights make it to the UFC.

Perhaps surprisingly, he’s not.

“I think this is the right time,” Prater told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I’m not going to lie. I’ve said before that I should have been in there, but I don’t think so now that I’m more level-headed.”

The son of two missionary parents, the Brazilian-born Prater spent his youth traveling through various South American and U.S. outposts. Along the way, he was exposed to the UFC’s first events and was instantly hooked.

“I started training in martial arts because I wanted to compete in the UFC at some point,” Prater said. “I saw Royce Gracie and Marco Ruas. I was very inspired by the early generation of Gracies, in the first eight to 10 UFC events, and I realized you had to have a really adept martial-arts background to be a complete fighter, so I tried to train in as many arts as possible.”

Prater didn’t share his parents’ same religious calling, but his family supported his martial-arts endeavors.

“My dad sacrificed for my career,” Prater said. “He’s been my biggest supporter. He’s helped me from the beginning. As a teenager, he was paying my dues when I was 14, 15 years old. He was paying the dues at my first academy. He’d buy my wrestling shoes, go to wrestling practice.

“When I got to a certain level in (Brazilian) jiu-jitsu, luta livre and Muay Thai, I realized I needed to go ahead and get my feet wet in the sport.”

For Prater, that meant two fights in his first night as a professional – Nov. 1, 2002 – and he won them both via submission. Prater won eight more fights in 2003 (six of them via submission), including a first-round tap-out of future UFC contender Melvin Guillard. Prater was operating under the tutelage of Yves Edwards at the time, yet the UFC didn’t come calling.

It was no matter for Prater, who felt he was ready for his chance in the octagon but willingly fought on regional shows in Brazil, Canada and the U.S. Along the way, which included short stops with the WEC and Strikeforce, he racked up wins over notables such as Carlos Condit and Spencer Fisher and kept a busy schedule that included scraps with Richard Crunkilton, Drew Fickett, Pat Healy, Anthony Lapsley, Antonio McKee, Derrick Noble and Keith Wisniewski, among others.

The hard work finally paid off this past December, when Siyar Bhadurzada was injured and forced out of a planned UFC 142 appearance and Prater (29-10-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was booked to face Erick Silva (13-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC).

“I feel we match up perfectly,” Prater said. “I think it’s a great fight for me, and I I feel I’m going to come out victorious. I’m going to definitely push the pace, get in his face from the get-go.”

The pair meets on the main card of tonight’s UFC 142 event, which takes place at HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro. Silva fights for the first time since his impressive knockout win over Luis Ramos at UFC 134 this past August, also in Rio.

Silva has been tagged my many MMA pundits as a top prospect in the welterweight division, but Prater believes the experience he gained on the regional stage will ultimately prove valuable in his UFC debut.

“I feel my experience is going to take over at some point,” Prater said. “My experience, my aggressiveness, and just my overall conditioning and pace, that’s what’s going to separate me from him in that fight.

“I think he’s very talented, but I know what I can do in that octagon. I’m going to go out there, and I have to prove it.”

Prater currently resides in Brasilia and works his training camp with the city’s Renovacao Fight Team. However, he makes use of many of Brasilia’s top facilities, including 2Brothers Jiu-Jitsu, Distrito da Luta and Cerrado MMA. On Saturday night, he’ll get an opportunity to show how he’s progressed since that 2002 debut. A lifetime of preparation, all for 15 minutes in the octagon.

“I’m pretty at peace with who I am, what I’ve done,” Prater said. “I’m just blessed. I have great people around me and just want to be able to thank them – my wife, my family, the people who make the sacrifice for me to be able to train and fight at the high level. MMA is not an individual sport. The performance is, but preparation is not. It’s a team sport, and I want to thank them.

“I just want to follow my dream and perform at the highest level that I can. I feel I have the talent I need to be to able to perform with other extremely talented individuals.”

On Saturday night, Prater has a chance to prove his value.

“Everything comes at the right time,” Prater said. “I’m taking this opportunity. This is the chance I was given. I’m just going to try to take it and run with it.”

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